Automotive Supplier Denso Spins Out Chip-Making Firm

Denso, the world’s third largest automotive supplier by sales, is spinning out a new company to create chips that enable automated safety functions like blind spot warnings and autonomous highway driving.

The company, which will be called Nsitexe, will develop integrated chips that monitor a vehicle’s surroundings by processing reams of sensor data and communicating with other cars wirelessly. The Tokyo-based semiconductor firm will target processors that are not only fast but also extremely efficient.

Nsitexe, which plans to license intellectual property to other chipmakers and receive fees in return, employ around 55 people when it opens for business in September. Yukihide Niimi, executive adviser of Japan’s Denso, will serve as the president. Initially, it will have around $920,000 million in operating capital.

Niimi said in a press conference this month that Nsitexe intends its technology to enter mass production before 2025, the Nikkei Asian Review reports. Forming the company follows Denso’s investment last year in machine learning start-up ThinCI, whose new architecture targets computer vision in autonomous cars.